Raspberry Sea Salt Fudge Brownies

I love my conversations with my grandma. A lot of times in the afternoon, either she will come into my room just to talk about something, or I will be making something in the kitchen and she will be sitting at the table and we will just be talking about life. In this brownie making session, our conversation was about her husband, my grandpa, Agong. Although he was just two rooms over, he couldn’t hear any of our conversation as he was playing a particular fishing game on his iPad with the volume on high. And because of that, it got my grandma talking and telling her stories….

The Fishing Game

While we were in Vietnam, we stopped by a small restaurant. Sitting there was a wife and a husband, whom we have become acquaintances with. On that day, the husband was just sitting there with an iPad. Agong goes over and asks what he’s doing and the old acquaintance says, “You’ve never played this before? It’s a fishing game that you can play on your iPad! Here let me show you.” So Agong watched while his old acquaintance played a round of fishing on the iPad and Agong’s interest in the game grew. The old friend then told Agong to come by the next day and he will teach Agong how to play. And so, the next day, Agong left at 3 to learn how to play the game of fishing on the iPad. He didn’t return until 7 at night! Oh I did not know what was taking him so long! He did not even come back for dinner! When he finally returned I asked him if he learned well, and Agong said “No, He didn’t teach me all of it because I would just forget it. So I am going to go back tomorrow to finish learning how to play.” Ahyoh what could I say? So the next day Agong went back and finished learning how to play. Now, it doesn’t matter he can play for hours into the night. Like right now. I bet he just caught another fish.

Getting Old

Sigh…ever since your grandpa got old he isn’t very romantic anymore! Why, my favorite color is pink! Shouldn’t that give it away enough that I like that kind of stuff? Let me tell you…when we used to fight, I would able to give him the silent treatment for three days. (At this point my grandma was looking very proud of herself.) And Agong not being able to stand it, would cave in only after one day and be the first to come talk to me. But now that he’s older, I just let it go. Do you know that one time someone came up to us, pointed at me and asked him, “Is this your daughter?” Haha sigh he’s getting so old, but at least I am still looking young!

The Lawn Mower

Just a couple days ago, Agong woke up at 4AM with a loud shout “AHYOH!” I thought he had a nightmare or something was wrong and I was really scared for him! I asked him what was wrong and let me just tell you….Last week, Agong and I went to the farmers market. You know the one on De Anza? Well, you know how theres a whole lot of antique items or discounted items? Agong found this one lawn mower that was actually very good quality and still worked and everything. Agong asked the seller how much it was, and the seller said “Since you are a senior, I’ll give it to you for only $10.” What a deal! Only $10 Agong was so happy. He paid the seller the money, but since we haven’t finished looking around the flea market, and since we didn’t want to push the lawn mower across the whole way, we asked the seller if we could leave it there and come back for it later. He agreed and we went on. Well, we did some more shopping and Agong was very excited about his new golf club and umbrella for his golf cart. SO excited that we FORGOT to go back for the lawn mower! And it wasn’t until a couple nights ago that he woke up at FOUR am remembering that he left it there! I said to him “I thought you had a bad dream or something” and he replied “I did!” So since the flea market only comes on the first Saturday of each month, he is going to go back to see if the lawn mower is still there so his $10 does not go to waste. Hopefully, it is still there….

Melt the butter and 8 oz chocolate over a double broiler until completely melted. Let it cool.

Whisk the sugars into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs, one at a time and the vanilla. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, and salt until just combined. Fold 1/4 c of the 1/2 c chocolate chips and pour the batter into a 9×9 bakingpan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 c chocolate chips and the raspberries on top.

Bake for 45 min, and for the last 15 min, open the oven to sprinkle on the sea salt, then continue to finish baking. Allow it to cool completely before slicing into squares and indulging. The fudgy chocolately goodness is countered by the slight tartness of the raspberry and subtle saltiness from the sea salt. A perfect three in one!